Virtual Object access rights to enable multi-party use of sensors

Today there are more sensors and actuators in isolated intranets of things than in the overall internet of things (IoT). This paper discusses the motives to open up an intranet of things and make the things part of the global IoT, identifies the requirements from the involved parties, and extracts the essential architectural implications from these requirements. The proposed solution comprises the definition and control of Access Rights to the discovery and use of Virtual Objects (VO). This approach builds upon the widely accepted view that Virtual Objects serve as digital representation and gateway to Real World Objects (sensors, actuators, etc), and where VO databases serve to find these virtual counterparts. The Access Rights determine not only who may use a function of a Virtual Object and the conditions for that access, but also determine their discoverability when searching the database of virtual objects counterparts. Access Rights solve important requirements for security, privacy, and accountability, that are prerequisite to the expected economic and innovation benefits of an internet of things across organisational domains. Since verification of Access Rights to a VO plays a central role in the deployment of the IoT the scalable implementation with semantic technologies remains a challenge.